CorPower Ocean to test at EMEC

Posted on 12 February 2016

Swedish wave energy developer CorPower Ocean has signed up to test a novel wave energy converter at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

CorPower has been successful in attracting support as part of a drive led by Wave Energy Scotland to develop a standardise offshore electricity generator – a power take-off device (PTO) - for the wave power industry.

Together with funding from KIC InnoEnergy and the Swedish Energy Agency, it means €6.5m is available to fund dry rig testing of a half-scale prototype system, followed by deployment at sea at EMEC’s scale test site in Scapa Flow.

The company’s unique technology will be taken through a programme of structured verification guided by support from EMEC, utilising experience and expertise from offshore power generation company Iberdrola Engineering, the University of Edinburgh, and WavEC Offshore Renewables.

After initial work in Sweden, the project will involve a five-month programme of dry and wet testing of the system in Orkney, culminating in a performance assessment by EMEC.

EMEC managing director Neil Kermode, said: “We’ve been working closely with CorPower and we’re thrilled to continue with that relationship as they progress through the development and testing of their novel PTO system.

“This is a particularly exciting project for EMEC as it includes the installation of additional infrastructure – a PTO dry test rig – near the Scapa Flow wave test site.

“This test rig will act as a lasting legacy of Corpower’s test programme and Wave Energy Scotland’s foresight, as it will be available to support the development of other wave and tidal energy converters in the future.”

Patrik Möller, chief executive officer at CorPower, said: “We are very excited to be partnering with EMEC, as they bring immense amounts of experience and lessons learned from previous wave projects on Orkney.

“We have the largest respect for the challenges presented by the ocean environment, and we are working closely with EMEC and the local supply chain on Orkney to make this project highly successful.

“We see a great opportunity to establish a long lasting presence in Scotland.”

Tim Hurst, managing director at Wave Energy Scotland, said: “CorPower’s contribution to the WES power take-off programme will be invaluable. The design is the most advanced of the PTO projects, and testing with EMEC will afford us the opportunity to follow the test progress closely.